sible forests, while the other three kinds grow in partly cultivated and inhabited regions, and their barks are therefore much more easy to collect. These worthless barks were, therefore, largely exported from Carthagena and Santa Martha, while the valuable C. lancifolia was neglected; and the consequence was that the barks of New Granada fell entirely into discredit for many years. In about 1849, however, Dr. Santa Maria of Bogota discovered the C. lancifolia afresh, producing the quina anaranjada, and it has recently been found in the whole cordillera from Bogota to Popayan, and largely exported between 1849 and 1855, when the supplies began to fail.

Dr. Karsten, a distinguished German botanist, has lately returned from a residence of some years in New Granada, where he thoroughly examined the region of C. lancifolia. His remarks on the production of alkaloids in chinchona barks are very important. He came to the conclusion that the content of alkaloids was not always the same in the same species of chinchona, and that the soil and relations of climate, on which the nourishment of the plant depends, exercise considerable influence. He also assumes, what is undoubtedly true, that the chinchona with the capsule opening from the base and crowned by the calyx, with a corolla of delicate texture and bearded edges, and generally unindented seedlobes, give febrifugal barks; but his further position that the short oval or elliptic capsules are a sign of a regularly larger content of alkaloids, while long capsules show a small quantity or total absence of quinine and chinchonine, though doubtless correct so far as Dr. Karsten's personal observation extended, will not bear general application. The C. succirubra, the richest of all the barks in alkaloids, would certainly come under the latter head. Dr. Karsten's observations on the differences in the structure of the false and true barks are also exceedingly valuable.

The C. lancifolia of New Granada has been found to contain as much as 24 per cent. of quinine and from 1 to 2 per

cent. of chinchonine. The trees are found in forest-regions veiled in fog and rain, and often exposed to frost, where the temperature ranges from freezing-point to 77° Fahr., at heights of 7000 feet and upwards above the level of the sea. They attain a height of 80 feet and 5 feet in diameter, but the average size is 30 or 40 feet high and 3 feet in girth." Seeds of this species, collected by Dr. Karsten, were sent to Java, and there are now several plants raised from these seeds in India.6

I find that between 1802 and 1807 the export of New Granada bark from the port of Carthagena was 3,340,000 lbs. ; the largest quantity in one year being 48,330 lbs. in 1806. The first arrivals in Spain sold at 5 to 6 dollars a pound, but in 1808 they were worth next to nothing, owing to the damaged state in which the bark arrived."

IV. THE HUANUCO REGION IN NORTHERN PERU, AND ITS GREY BARKS.

The chinchona-trees, in the forests of the province of Huanuco, in Northern Peru, were discovered by Don Francisco Renquifo in 1776, on the mountain of San Cristoval de Cuchero or Cocheros; and Don Manuel Alcarraz brought the first sample of bark from Huanuco to Lima.

At almost the same time the Spanish government was organizing a botanical expedition to explore the chinchona

Flora Columbia specimina selecta, i. p. 21 Berlin, 1858. A superbly illustrated work by Dr. Karsten.

6 Die medicinischen Chinarinden Neu-Granadas, von H. Karsten: Berlin, 1858. I have had this pamphlet translated for the use of those intrusted with, or interested in, the chinchona cultivation in India and Ceylon. It contains a great deal of valuable information respecting the most favourable

situations for the production of alkaloids in chinchona barks, and other particulars respecting the growth of the bark, and the methods of collecting it. Dr. Karsten is a careful observer and a scientific botanist and chemist, and his observations form a very important addition to our knowledge of this subject.

7 Report of the Administrador Don Ignacio Cavero, Semanario, p. 183.

forests of Peru; composed of the botanists Don José Pavon, Don Hipolito Ruiz, the Frenchman Dombey, and two artists named Brunete and Galvez. They embarked at Cadiz on November 4th, 1777, and reached Callao April 8th, 1778. Having made a large collection of plants in the neighbourhood of Lima, and despatched them to Spain, they crossed the Andes, explored the forests of Tarma, and then proceeded to Huanuco. They traversed the valley of Chinchao, explored the hill of Cuchero or Cocheros, near Huanuco, and discovered seven species of chinchona-trees, returning to Lima laden with the precious spoils of their expedition. They then sailed for Chile, and, after exploring the greater part of that province, they returned to Lima, and sent off their botanical collections in fifty-three boxes, which were all lost in the shipwreck of the San Pedro de Alcantara,' off the coast of Portugal, in 1786. M. Dombey returned to Europe at about the same time.

9

Ruiz and Pavon then returned to Huanuco, explored the courses of the rivers Pozuzu and Huancabamba, and eventually established themselves at the farm of Macora, near Huanuco, where they resided for two months with Don Francisco Pulgar and Don Juan Tafalla, who, by order of the king, had joined them as pupils and associates in their labours-the first as an artist, the second as a botanist. In August, 1785, a fire broke out in their house, which destroyed all their journals and collections; and they then undertook journeys through the forests of Muña, Pillao, and Chacahuasi, examin

8 300 dried specimens, and 242 coloured drawings, sent in the ship Buen Consejo.'

9 Namely:-

1. C. lanceolata

2. C. purpurea
3. C. ovata
4. C. nitida

5. C. hirsuta ..

6. C. magnifolia
7. C. glandulifera

ing new species of chinchona. On April 1st, 1788, taking leave of Pulgar and Tafalla, they sailed from Callao, and reached Cadiz in September, when they commenced the publication of their great work the 'Flora Peruviana.'2

Tafalla continued his researches in the province of Huanuco, and discovered the C. micrantha in 1797, in the cool and shady forests of Monzon and Chicoplaya. Pavon calls him "noster alumnus."

The expeditions and discoveries of the Spanish botanists induced the merchants of Lima to speculate in bark, and brought the grey barks of Huanuco into the European markets. In 1785 Don Juan de Bezares, a Lima merchant, devoted 2000 dollars to the exploration of the forests of Huamalies. He penetrated along the banks of the Monzon to Chicoplaya, passing mountains thickly covered with chinchona-trees, and engaged people to collect bark. Thousands of arrobas were thus obtained of the bark of C. glandulifera; and having been appointed Governor of Huamalies by the Viceroy Don Teodoro de Croix in 1788, Bezares commenced the construction of a good road down the valley of the Monzon. Up to 1826 the principal supplies of grey bark were derived from C. nitida, but since that time they are believed to have come chiefly from C. micrantha.

Science owes much to the labours of Spanish botanists: the Spanish nation has every reason to be proud of her sons who explored the forests of the Andes with such untiring energy and distinguished ability; and the names of Mutis, Ruiz, Pavon, and Tafalla occupy no unimportant place in the history of botanical research. Nor, in this respect, have the

I have examined Pavon's dried specimens from Huanuco, now in the botanical gardens at Madrid.

There are leaves of C. lanceolata, from the forests of Muña; leaves and capsules of C. ovata, some of the former very slightly cordate, from Panao and Pillao; leaves, flowers, and capsules of C. purpurea; and leaves and cap

sules of C. nitida, from Cuchero.
* Ruiz published his Quinologia in

1792.

3 At first, in the best years, as many as 25,000 arrobas of bark were exported from the province of Huanuco, and some large fortunes were made. Poeppig. An arroba = 25 lbs. 4 Mercurio Peruano.